In recent years, the
agnostic movement in AA has taken strength. Even though it is a small
minority, many people are beginning to realize that AA is essentially
an agnostic approach to recovery. What do we mean by agnostic? Any person
who rejects a clearly defined notion of God could be termed agnostic.
People who believe in a mystical god, people who reject the notion of
a punishing God, and even people who do not believe in a higher power
orchestrating the happenings of the universe--all these could be called
agnostic. There is much diversity in the Agnostic approach. The agnostic
movement is essentially a rebellion against authoritative religious beliefs.

AA in its essence
is an anarchistic and agnostic group. There are no leaders, no authorities,
no one handing down beliefs; you are invited to look at the steps that
are suggested as a program for recovery. The fact that God is freely mentioned,
in early AA literature should be seen as the writers struggling to name
a certain sense they had-of something mystical, something transcendent-that
they could appeal to for help.

The agnostic approach
explores how such an appeal assists in recovery, without necessarily regarding
this as proof of the existence of God. The agnostic approach protects
the total freedom of the individual in defining to himself the notion
of the transcendent. AA calls this, "a higher power of your own understanding."
When AA talks about the necessity of believing in a higher power, the
agnostic perspective on this is that connecting to a sense of the transcendent
is an essential ingredient of recovery. But it does not imply the existence
of any mystical forces in the universe.

Man, has a mind that
is constantly chattering. This is the Conscious-Rational-Ego mind. This
mind has debated the use of alcohol, has often declared its intention
to stop drinking and has also often provided rationalizations for continuing
to drink. This mind promises to stop drinking, generates apologies for
despicable behavior, strategizes on how to lie to the boss and the family,
schemes on how to generate money to continue drinking and so on. It participates
in debates on whether we really need to stop drinking or simply to control
drinking. It argues that we are not really alcoholic, but we just sometimes
drink too much. This Conscious-Rational-Ego mind thinks it makes all the
decisions; it thinks it is in charge here. This is what AA refers to as
the Ego.

AA realizes that the
decision to drink is often coming from much deeper than the Conscious-Rational-Ego
mind. A person who had been sober for six months, suddenly finds himself
drunk and is asked about it later. "What happened? You were doing
so well?" He is at a loss to explain what happened. His Conscious-Rational-Ego
mind hastens to come up with an exclamation, "Oh, I just thought
I could take one drink. I was with some friends... etc.." This is
coming from a person who has acknowledged repeatedly over the last six
months that it is impossible for him to control even if it takes one drink.

The obvious conclusion
is that the decision to drink came from somewhere deeper or higher than
the Conscious-Rational-Ego mind. But this Conscious-Rational-Ego mind
cannot accept that it is not in charge. The first step in the AA is the
acknowledgment that the Conscious-Rational-Ego mind is powerless over
alcohol.

Is there more to us
than our Conscious-Rational-Ego mind? Certainly, a little contemplation
will convince us that there are many processes and decisions that are
made for us without even consulting the Conscious-Rational-Ego mind. An
infant knows what to do without the benefit of rational thinking. Our
likes and dislikes, our emotions, our fear of public speaking, who we
instinctively attracted to (sexually or spiritually), our thirst for water
or alcohol, our hunger-these are all governed by a higher level than our
Conscious-Rational-Ego mind.

AA was one of the
first programs to acknowledge that any human change has to occur at the
level much deeper. If our Conscious-Rational-Ego mind was in charge, everyone
would be eating exactly the way they wanted to, everyone would be precisely
the weight that the Conscious-Rational-Ego mind decided was ideal, and
everyone would be scrupulously following the exercise program that they
had decided on.

Similarly, if the
Conscious-Rational-Ego mind were in charge, nobody would get drunk except
specifically in those instances that they set out to. If they decided
they should quit alcohol, they would do so without needing any outside
help. Experience has shown that the Conscious-Rational-Ego mind is not
in charge when it comes to alcohol.

This understanding
is what is behind the first two steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. The notion
of powerlessness and the concept of a higher power should both be taken
simply as statements about the power limitations of the Conscious-Rational-Ego
mind. Nothing mysterious or magical needs to be read into this.

The agnostic approach
is simply one that is rational and scientific and rejects mysterious and
magical concepts. However, we will try and understand the role that belief
in mysterious and magical forces may play in recovery from alcoholism.
And we will explore how to tap into these without necessarily accepting
that recovery involves magic.